DUBAI — President Trump has ordered the U.S. military to “shoot and kill” small Iranian boats that deploy mines in the Strait of Hormuz, he said Thursday, a day after Iran again displayed its ability to thwart traffic through the channel.
Trump’s post on social media came shortly after the U.S. military seized another tanker associated with the smuggling of Iranian oil, ratcheting up a standoff with Tehran over the strait through which 20% of all crude oil and natural gas traded passes.
“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be … that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump posted, adding that U.S. minesweepers “are clearing the Strait right now.”
“I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!” he added.
The Defense Department released video footage earlier Thursday of U.S. forces on the deck of the Guinea-flagged oil tanker Majestic X, which was seized in the Indian Ocean.
The move unfolded a day after Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards attacked three cargo ships in the strait, capturing two of them, in an assault that raised new concerns about the safety of shipping through the waterway.
The powerful head of Iran’s judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei, said three “violating ships” in the strait were “subject to enforcement” on Wednesday.
“The show of strength by the armed forces of Islamic Iran in the Strait of Hormuz is a source of pride,” he wrote Thursday on X, claiming that the Americans “lack the courage” to approach the strait.
Trump claims leadership rift in Iran
Ship-tracking data showed the Majestic X in the Indian Ocean between Sri Lanka and Indonesia, roughly the same location as the oil tanker Tifani, which was seized earlier by American forces. It had been bound for Zhoushan, China.
The vessel previously had been named Phonix and had been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2024 for smuggling Iranian crude oil in contravention of U.S. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
There was no immediate response from Iran about the seizure.
Trump this week extended a ceasefire to give the battered Iranian leadership more time to come up with a “unified proposal” on ending the war, while maintaining an American blockade of Iranian ports.
In a separate post Thursday, Trump claimed a leadership rift between moderates and hardliners was confounding Iran.
“Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know!” Trump said.
The president has repeatedly said over the course of the ceasefire that began on April 8 that his team is dealing with Iranian officials who want to make a deal, while acknowledging that his decision to kill several top leaders has come with complications.
Israel, Lebanon extend ceasefire
Elsewhere on the diplomatic track, Trump said Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah by three weeks after talks at the White House on Thursday.
Trump said the meeting between the Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad and her Israeli counterpart Yechiel Leiter went “very well.” The meeting was the second high-level talks between the two countries since last week. The initial 10-day ceasefire, which took effect last Friday, had been due to expire on Monday.
“The United States is going to work with Lebanon in order to help it protect itself from Hezbollah,” Trump said in a social media post. He added that he is looking forward to meeting in person with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun “in the near future..”
The latest war between Israel and Hezbollah started two days after Israel and the U.S. launched attacks on Iran, after the Tehran-backed militants fired rockets into northern Israel.
In a new show of the fragility of the ceasefire that went into effect Friday in Lebanon, Hezbollah said it attacked Israeli positions in southern Lebanon, targeting Israeli soldiers in the village of Taybeh.
Each side has accused the other of breaching the 10-day truce.
The standoff between the U.S. and Iran has choked off nearly all exports through the strait with no end in sight.
Threat to Strait of Hormuz shipping
Since the Feb. 28 start of the war between Iran, Israel and the United States, over 30 ships have come under attack in the waters of the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.
The threat of attack, rising insurance premiums and other fears have stopped traffic from moving through the strait. Iran’s ability to restrict traffic through the strait, which leads from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has proved a major strategic advantage.
Jakob Larsen, the head of maritime security for BIMCO, the largest international association representing shipowners, said in a note Thursday that most shipping companies need a stable ceasefire and assurances from both sides of the conflict that the strait is safe for transit.
The threat of mines, he wrote, was a “particular concern” if traffic might return to normal levels one day.
The ceasefire has been strained by the dueling U.S. attacks on Iranian ships and those by Iran on commercial vessels. It also remains unclear when, or if, the two sides will meet again in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where officials say they are still trying to bring the countries together to reach a diplomatic deal.
The conflict already has sent gas prices skyrocketing far beyond the region and raised the cost of food and a wide array of other products. Officials around the world have warned that the effects on businesses, consumers and economies could be long-lasting.
Gambrell, Keaten and Madhani write for the Associated Press. Madhani reported from Washington and Keaten reported from Geneva.